Come to Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston on Saturday, June 2 from 9 – 3 and bring some/take some! Find great gardening books to swap or add to your collection. Free with admission. For directions, visit http://towerhillbg.org.
Explore the world of botanical art in this Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens course designed especially for the beginner. Sarah Roche guides you through structured exercises, projects and demonstrations, exposing you to the basic techniques of botanical drawing and watercolor painting. The four day class will be held at the Wellesley Community Center Monday through Wednesday, June 4-6, from 9:30 – 3:30, and on Thursday , June 7, from 9:30 – 12:30. Friends price $250, nonmembers $300. Register on line at www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn
John Sabraw’s colorful and highly textured paintings celebrate connectivity to nature by examining chroma and structure in micro-macro relationships. These works of art utilize pigments generated by remediating streams polluted with coal mine runoff called acid mine drainage. View them in the Alice Milton Gallery at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, May 15 – July 15, free with admission to the garden.
We observe natural systems in action and see that they are irregular; their structures form under the influence of natural law without conscious ideas of what they will become. Systems like these occur at macro and micro levels in nature and it is we as humans who seek understanding; the laws of physics that determine the flow of great river deltas also affect the patterns we observe in leaves and tree bark, and even water with some added pigments can flow and set into beautiful imagery reflective of these natural phenomena. The result is complex, luminous, mysterious paintings that strike a beautiful balance between controlled and organic processes.
Artist John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. An activist and environmentalist, Sabraw’s paintings, drawings and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, and he continually works toward a fully sustainable practice. He collaborates with scientists on many projects, and one of his current collaborations involves creating paint and paintings from iron oxide extracted in the process of remediating polluted streams.
Sabraw’s art is in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, and Accenture Corp. Sabraw is represented in Chicago by Thomas McCormick.
Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he is Chair of the Painting + Drawing program, and Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, and Great Big Story.
The famed Concord spokesman for individualism and self-reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once wrote: “When I go into a good garden, I think, if it were mine, I should never go out of it.” This year the Concord Museum is celebrating 29 years of “going into good gardens” on the annual Concord Garden Tour.
The Museum’s Guild of Volunteers has organized this pre-eminent garden tour, an unequaled opportunity both to share in the delights of beautiful and historic private gardens in Concord and to support the Museum’s Education Programs which annually serve over 12,000 students from 85 Massachusetts communities and 22 states.
The Museum’s Garden Tour has become a New England tradition for garden lovers from near and far. The Garden Tour will take place on two days, Friday and Saturday, June 1 and June 2, rain or shine. Each of the private gardens reflects the individual interests and passions of the owners and their families and will inspire both new gardeners designing their first perennial bed and accomplished landscapers with acres of “garden rooms.”
The tour of Concord-area gardens is self-guided and self-paced, beginning each day at 9:00 a.m. and continuing until 4:00 p.m. Garden-goers should arrive at the Museum to pick up their maps prior to starting out. Tickets are good for either or both days, but each garden may only be visited once. No refunds; no photography.
Early Registration Tickets are available online at http://www.concordmuseum.org/special-events-garden-tour.php : $30 Concord Museum Members, $40 Non-Members. Tickets purchased after May 28 or at the door are $35 Concord Museum Members, $40 Non-Members.
Cao Jun was born in 1966 and raised in Jiangsu Province in southern China, where the lakes and rivers shaped his childhood environment. For eighteen years he studied and worked near Mount Tai, one of China’s most ancient places of worship and ceremonial ritual. Concrete experience of both aquatic sites and mountainous terrain informed Cao Jun’s approach to artistic creation. After formal training in Beijing, he settled in New Zealand yet traveled throughout Europe and the United States. More recently he journeyed to the polar regions and northern Alaska.
Hymns to Nature is Cao Jun’s first exhibition in the United States. It examines the deep roots of his art in the experience of nature and how he portrays our place within it. It also illuminates his novel responses to admired, earlier paintings by his countrymen, encouraging us to ponder a dynamic dialogue between Chinese art of the past and that of the present.
Arranged thematically, the exhibition opens with his early works depicting wild animals. It moves on to later paintings where he employs the techniques of ink- and color-splashing to render mountain landscapes, water, and flowers. Subsequent areas display his calligraphy and porcelain. The exhibition concludes with more recent abstract works exploring the various configurations in which spatial phenomena can appear.
Hymns to Nature is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by John Sallis, with contributions by Chinese and American scholars that examine the ways in which Cao Jun’s art fuses elements of classical Chinese painting with modern abstract forms akin to those of Western art. Essays also discuss the philosophical and poetic dimensions of the artist’s work, as well as Cao Jun’s profound connections to the natural world.
Organized by the McMullen Museum, Hymns to Nature has been curated by John Sallis and underwritten by Boston College with major support from the Patrons of the McMullen Museum. The show may be seen in the Daley Family and Monan Galleries at Boston College through June 3. For more information visit https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/exhibitions/cao-jun/
Thousands of world-famous rhododendrons in over 100 varieties offer an explosion of spectacular blooms throughout Heritage Museums & Gardens. Enjoy a peaceful walk surrounded by walls of flowers, learn more about Heritage’s storied rhododendron legacy, participate in activities with horticulture experts, and take home one of these signature plants from the special plant sale. All programs are free with museum admission. No advance registration required.
Daily Rhododendron Collection Walking Tour
Saturday, May 26 – Sunday, June 3, 11:30 am-12 pm and 2 pm-2:30 pm
Take a deep dive into the world of rhododendrons. Discover how the work done by two hybridizers—Charles Dexter and Jack Cowles—contributed to the genus Rhododendron and created the plants that are so loved today. Guides will select the most spectacular spots for viewing these stunning plants daily. Tours meet at the Dexter Terrace.
Rhododendron Care Walk and Talk
Sunday, May 27: 1-1:45 pm
Tuesday, May 29: 10:30-11:15 am
Thursday, May 31: 10:30-11:15 am
Saturday, June 2: 10:30-11:15 am
Heritage’s Horticulture staff share the basics on how to maintain and care for your rhododendrons. Included are demonstrations of ideal growing situations, watering, fertilizing, mulching, pest control, pruning, bud-pinching, and dead-heading to encourage optimal health and beauty.
Rhododendron Pruning Demonstration
Saturday, May 26: 10:30-11:15 am
Wednesday, May 30: 1-1:45 pm
Friday, June 1: 1-1:45 pm Sunday, June 3: 1-1:45 pm
Join Heritage Horticulture staff to learn how to selectively prune your plants to improve vigor, increase bloom density, control height, and enhance ornamental value. Discuss the tools, techniques, and timing needed for effective pruning and watch a demonstration of techniques on various plants during a walk through the garden. For complete information visit https://heritagemuseumsandgardens.org/event/rhododendron-festival-2/
Tour the Arnold Arboretum’s Dana Greenhouses with Plant Propagator Sean Halloran on Sunday, May 27 from 10 – 11. The focus will be on the Campaign for the Living Collections, seed (and plant) collecting in the field, accessioning and record keeping, seed stratification, and germination. Also learn about growing plants on in the Shade House and Nurseries and re-propagation of important lineages. The tour will end with time for questions and then back at the display pavilion to view our dwarfed potted plant collection. Meet at the Larz Anderson Bonsai and Penjing Pavilion. In case of inclement weather, please call 617 384-5209. Free, registration is limited and requested at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu
Learn how to propagate native plants using organic earth-based techniques at Helia Native Nursery on Saturday, May 26 from 10:30 – noon. Helia Native Nursery is situated on Sky Meadow Farm, a beautiful 109-acre farm in Alford, Massachusetts. They are a small nursery in Berkshire County that specializes in growing native perennials, as well as trees and shrubs.
Their mission is to preserve native genotypes through seed banking on the farm and propagating them in our plant nursery. Their plants are available for the landscaping community, homeowners, and nature enthusiasts. Many of the species propagated are not available in the standard nursery industry.
Their land stewardship on the farm focuses on restoring wildflower meadows for pollinators, woodlands and fens for rare fauna. They have a long term forestry plan written with help from Massachusetts Woodland Institute and Peter Tucker to remove invasive shrubs to create song bird habitat. Removing the invasive species will benefit the wildlife on the farm as well as reduce the number of ticks in the community at large. A high volume of native plant diversity will create optimal habitat for birds, butterflies, pollinators, amphibians, and dragonflies and boost the resilience of this ecosystem.
Their techniques of propagation are strictly organic and earth-based. They use the highest quality organic potting material and inoculate the potting soil with compost, topsoil from the farm, and mulch to create a diverse soil food web. These practices allow for healthier, less disease-prone plants. If pest or disease control is required, they only use organic methods.
To achieve greener nursery practices they only use a passive solar greenhouse, and reuse all pots. They are conscious about daily water use and have a strict non-chemical approach to plant propagation and pot maintenance. All of these efforts lower their ecological footprint.
The workshop costs $20 per person and includes an eco-tour of Sky Meadow Farm. If you are interested in attending email helianativenursery@gmail.com.
Today, the Arnold Arboretum is a place of research as well as education and enjoyment. Scientists from around the world take advantage of the diverse and extensive collections throughout the landscape. How did scientists use the Arboretum in the 1800s to advance scientific ideas when the Arboretum was in its infancy? And how did those ideas further the discoveries and ideas that continue in the present? Esther Miller, Arboretum Docent, will give a guided tour on Saturday, May 26 from 1 – 2:30 and address some of these questions.
In case of inclement weather, please call 617 384-5209. Meet at the Hunnewell Building. Free, registration is requested at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu
Wear your best hat and celebrate the opening of Berkshire Botanical Garden’s stunning summer exhibition Beautiful Strangers: Artists Discover the Garden, a collection of contemporary sculpture on display throughout the Garden’s beautiful grounds featuring works by Alice Aycock, Wendell Castle, E.V. Day, Fitzhugh Karol, Mark Mennin, Michele Oka Doner, Ned Smyth, Stephen Talasnik, and Rob Wynne.
Curated by James Salomon.
This year’s Fete includes Plants as Art — a silent auction of artistically displayed plants, trees, shrubs and container plants. All proceeds from the auction support the Garden’s horticulture and education programs.
For more information call (413) 320-4794, or register online at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/f%C3%AAte-des-fleurs.
The following businesses have generously donated to Plants as Art
Broken Arrow Nursery
Campo de’ Fiori
David Burdick Daffodils & More
Glendale Botanicals
Hort and Pott
Maple Lane Nursery
O’Brien Nursery
Pondside Nursery
Twin Brooks Gardens
Whalen Nursery, Inc.
White Flower Farm
Windy Hill Nursery
Zema’s Nursery
